Aaliyah Biopic Gets New Lead Actress, Alexandra Shipp

392312 22: Singer Aaliyah attends the world premiere of the film "Planet of the Apes" July 23, 2001 at the Ziefield Theatre in New York City. (Photo by George De Sota/Getty Images)

(George De Sota/Getty Images)

By Philip Cosores

The new Aaliyah biopic has found its lead. Again.

The road to bring Aaliyah’s life to the screen has not been an easy one, with the question starting to be raised if it really should be done this way, with the deceased singer’s estate maintaining a critical role of the project throughout, leading actress Zendaya Coleman to walk out on her starring role last month

Aaliyah: Princess of R&B, as the Lifetime Original will be called, now has a new lead (via Consequence of Sound): Alexandra Shipp, who you might remember from Nickelodeon’s House of Anubis.

Her other acting credits include spots on Awkward, Ray Donovan, and Switched at Birth.

The news of the new actress was presented by everyone’s favorite daytime talkshow host, Wendy Williams, whom will also work as a producer. Bradley Walsh (Turn the Beat Around) will direct, with a script penned by Michael Elliot (Brown Sugar).

On last contentious item still needs to be sorted, though, as the estate seems to want the singer’s marriage to R. Kelly be excluded from the film.

The film is set to continue progression later this summer for a likely fall premiere.